My Favorite Halloween Decoration

Fall is one of my favorite seasons for many reasons, one of which is how fun it is to decorate with fall goodies.  I love buying pumpkins, gourds and mums to spruce up our house and bring in such beautiful colors. Most of my fall decorations can be left up all the way to Thanksgiving because I have a lot of plain pumpkins that aren't too "Halloweenish."  But I have one Halloween decoration that I thought I would share with everyone because it's so fun for the kids.

Every year we make a "Halloween Tree" for our screened-in porch.  (And let me just credit my mom here for coming up with this idea a few years ago...thanks, Mom!).  My kids look forward to making this tree every year and it couldn't be more simple!  First, I use an old pot filled with potting soil.  This isn't hard to find because by now all of the wonderful pots of flowers I planted in the spring are totally dead.  Then, we gather some long spooky-looking branches from the yard.  Shove them into the dirt in the pot to create an old dead-looking "tree."  Then, add fake spider webs and some orange and purple strands of lights and then comes the fun part!  The kids get to fill it with plastic spiders, bats, and ghosts made from tissue paper.  Each year when we get those plastic spiders or other trinkets from Trick or Treating I put them in our "Halloween Tree" box and now we have quite a nice collection.  They usually both want to make bats out of construction paper or other creepy things too. 

The kids have a blast decorating it and it is inexpensive and super easy for me.  They love showing off our spooky Halloween tree each October.  I thought I would share the idea in case you are looking for a cheap, easy Halloween decoration project to do with your kiddos!